Chapter 1629: Blocking Your Path to Enlightenment
The other reincarnation of Taichu was Du Yufei.
Du Yufei was not at the Wen Dao Academy in Yankang, nor had he gone to the Grand Academy. Instead, he studied at the Celestial Sage Academy. In recent years, because Yankang had to face pressure from the Heavenly Court, the Celestial Sage Academy would strictly examine the souls of enrolled scholars, thoroughly investigating their origins before allowing them to enter.
Du Yufei had been examined, and his background was clear. His resume, family history, and connections showed no irregularities whatsoever.
After enrolling, his performance placed him among the lower-middle tier of the Celestial Sage Academy's scholars—the unremarkable type who never displayed any special traits.
He was withdrawn by nature and rarely interacted with others.
One day, Du Yufei was heading to class when he heard a vendor's shout: "Mirrors for sale! Mirrors for sale! Fine divine mirrors, unearthed from an ancient imperial tomb! Only fifty thousand Dafeng coins each!"
Du Yufei paid it no mind. This was the usual atmosphere at the Celestial Sage Academy. Its predecessor was the Celestial Sage Sect, whose members came from all walks of life, carrying the flavor of the marketplace.
The scholars at the Celestial Sage Academy also had a rustic air about them. Whenever they acquired some treasure, they would hawk it within the academy, and some even liked to boast, exaggerating their finds to the heavens.
Du Yufei walked over and saw a crowd gathered around the scholar selling mirrors, examining the divine artifacts.
"What a fine treasure!" someone exclaimed.
The scholar held up a divine mirror and shouted, "This divine mirror is a treasure from an ancient imperial tomb, an artifact of the ancient emperor himself. Naturally, it's a fine treasure! You'd be lucky to even glimpse such a thing on ordinary days! Today, I'm selling it for only fifty thousand Dafeng coins—a massive loss!"
Du Yufei glanced at the divine mirror, and at that moment, the mirror happened to reflect his image.
Du Yufei froze for a moment, slightly dazed, then shook his head and continued toward the classroom. The bell for class rang, and the crowd around the scholar quickly dispersed, rushing to their lessons.
Du Yufei looked back, but the mirror-selling scholar had vanished, presumably also heading to class.
Qin Mu walked out of the Celestial Sage Academy, a smile on his face. He tossed the divine mirror in his hand. Within the mirror, Du Yufei's phantom passed through life after life in the cycle of reincarnation, and all his divine techniques and Dao methods were imprinted on the mirror's surface.
The moment Du Yufei looked into the divine mirror, he had fallen into Qin Mu's technique. His experiences from life after life were all etched into the mirror.
"Selling this mirror for fifty thousand Dafeng coins was truly a bargain."
Qin Mu chuckled. The treasure he had personally refined was priceless; fifty thousand Dafeng coins was practically giving it away, but unfortunately, no one recognized its worth.
"Taichu is indeed cunning. Du Yufei and Yan Duxing each cultivated only half of the treasure halls. Clearly, Taichu feared someone might see through his reincarnations, so he split the cultivation between them."
Qin Mu returned to the Heavenly Palace above the Yong River and slowly began to study and comprehend, filling in the fourteen treasure halls he had been missing.
Finally, the remaining fourteen treasure halls were completed. As the last hall took shape, Qin Mu's aura suddenly surged. He felt waves of immense power flowing in from the past!
This power came from the strength of the sixteen past universes, the might of the seventy-two enlightened ones from the ancestral court's Jade Capital City. Though these beings had not come to this universe, their Dao techniques had been transmitted through the seventy-two treasure halls of the ancestral court's Jade Capital City!
Vaguely, his gaze seemed to pierce through the sixteen past universes, seeing the vast, boundless chaos. Seventy-two powerful figures stood beneath their respective Dao trees!
They were amidst the destruction tribulations of their own universes, enduring calamities without being erased by the cycle of cosmic birth and death!
The chaos was too thick. Qin Mu could only make out the forms of these seventy-two followers of the Miluo Palace Master, seeing the light radiating from the Dao fruits hanging on their trees, but he could not discern their faces.
"Seventh Young Master!"
He heard voices from the past—the voices of enlightened ones, crossing time and space, traversing the great destruction tribulations, piercing into his ears.
"You cultivate our techniques, and you fall under our control!"
The seventy-two overlapping voices were deafening, reaching deep into his soul: "By stealing our power, you weave your own cocoon!"
"Now that you are in our grasp, you are doomed never to achieve enlightenment!"
In Qin Mu's mind, these seventy-two voices roared and rumbled, refusing to subside for a long time.
In the vast chaos, the seventy-two figures walked toward him, as if stepping from the past into the present, from illusion into reality.
He stood there, then suddenly let out a scornful laugh.
Within the spiritual embryo divine storage in his brow, the Jade Capital City was connected to the ancestral court's Jade Capital City, like a projection of it. This was a form of borrowing power—using the ancestral court's Jade Capital City to elevate his own cultivation realm.
Doing so naturally carried some hidden dangers. Thus, the moment he completed the seventy-two treasure halls, he immediately alerted the enlightened ones who had built them!
These enlightened ones were the overlords of past universes, their divine abilities vast and inconceivable. The treasure halls they left behind were extensions of their power. By cultivating them, Qin Mu borrowed their strength, making himself perceptible to them.
Among them were the enlightened one Yuan Zun, who had already died in the ancestral court's Jade Capital City, and Nanxiang Yuanjun, whom Qin Mu had met once.
In the past universe, Yuan Zun had not yet died, and Nanxiang Yuanjun had not resolved her grievances with Qin Mu.
"You think that by borrowing your power, you can stop me with these seventy-two treasure halls? A fool's dream!"
Within the spiritual embryo divine storage, Qin Mu's primordial spirit grew larger and stronger.
"My goal is not merely to cultivate to the Jade Capital realm."
His body stood straight as a world tree, unyielding and unbending, something even the destruction tribulations could not erase!
Behind him, the world tree stood beside the Great Heavenly Court, as if swept by a fierce wind, its branches and leaves dancing wildly.
His goal was to borrow the power of the ancestral court's Jade Capital City as a stepping stone to cross into the next realm!
That next realm lay at the center of the Jade Capital City, within the faintly visible hall shrouded in chaotic energy!
That was his true target!
The hall within the chaotic energy occupied the position where the Lingxiao Hall should have been. After learning of the Lingxiao trap, Qin Mu had become wary of the Lingxiao and Imperial Throne realms.
Last time, when the lotus bloomed in his divine storage's Guixu, it allowed him to comprehend the Dao of cosmic birth and death. Amidst the cycle of creation and destruction, he had realized his own path, his own Dao techniques.
That was his new cultivation method, his new Dao techniques. Using this new Overlord Body Three-Dantian Art, he had undergone countless cycles of birth and destruction, finally forming a hall within the chaos.
His goal was to cross the chaos, arrive before this Chaos Hall, step inside, and ascend to his own Imperial Throne!
This was his Dao, his path!
Earlier, during his cultivation, he had felt that his own strength was insufficient to enter this hall.
But now, with the power of the seventy-two treasure halls of the ancestral court's Jade Capital City supporting him, he had enough confidence and conviction!
"Seventy-two fellow Daoists, you are all my stepping stones!"
Within the Jade Capital City, Qin Mu's primordial spirit looked at the phantoms emerging from the seventy-two treasure halls, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth: "Your purpose is to help me achieve enlightenment!"
Boom—
Within his divine storage's Heavenly Court, waves of terrifying aura surged. The phantoms of the seventy-two enlightened ones walked out of their respective treasure halls. Behind each hall, a Dao tree radiated an immensely profound Dao aura.
On the trees, Dao fruits hung from the branches, varying in number.
The Dao resonance emanating from the fruits was wondrous and grand, filling his divine storage universe with all kinds of Dao sounds and multicolored Dao light.
The seventy-two enlightened ones stood in his path, blocking his primordial spirit's way forward.
Qin Mu stepped forward. The Heavenly Court trembled. Within the countless heavenly palaces, Dao techniques and divine abilities nearly boiled over. Countless rays of multicolored light surged forth, drilling into Qin Mu's primordial spirit.
From the ancestral court, the Xuan Du, the Yuan Du, the You Du, the Tian Yin, the Guixu, and the myriad realms, various divine beings emerged.
In the ancestral court, the five great mineral veins erupted with light, each with a deity seated atop them, their faces ancient and noble.
In an instant, Qin Mu's divine storage universe resounded with the thunderous roar of Dao sounds, a magnificent spectacle!
His divine storage was bustling with activity, yet his physical body remained calm and motionless, not a trace of aura leaking out.
Great Heavenly Court, Jade Capital City.
Qin Mu's primordial spirit strode forward. Behind one of the halls, a Dao tree swayed, its Dao fruits trembled, and an unparalleled Dao aura surged forth, like a blade of time that could sever all, slashing horizontally!
Qin Mu reached out and punched, meeting the blade light!
"Your power is not lent to me—it is seized by me!"
The divine storage universe boiled. His magical power was nearly berserk. With one punch, he shattered the blade light. His form suddenly leaped into the air, crashing down with a boom before that hall, and he bowed deeply!
Boom—
Before the treasure hall, the phantom of that enlightened one exploded, turning into rolling chaotic energy.
Qin Mu bowed again. Behind the hall, the Dao tree shattered with a crash, and the Dao fruits burst apart.
Before the Heavenly Court, Qin Mu's world tree's branches danced, absorbing the light transformed from the Dao tree and fruits, leaving not a drop behind.
Whoosh—
The Guixu erupted, absorbing the chaotic energy from the enlightened one's phantom.
Qin Mu straightened up, his cultivation level surging step by step. He continued forward, his voice rumbling like thunder, echoing through the divine storage universe.
"With you, you think you can stop my enlightenment?"
He spread his five fingers, revealing the thirty-one layers of the Heavenly Dao realm, merging the Five Primordials into one. With a palm strike, another enlightened one's phantom before the next hall struggled to resist, unleashing various Dao techniques and divine abilities, barely managing to block the blow.
But the next moment, Qin Mu was already at his left side. Using his hand as a blade, he struck horizontally, cleaving him in two!
Qin Mu crouched, then leaped into the air, landing behind the hall. He descended from above, crushing the phantom of that enlightened one's world tree to dust with his feet!
The world tree absorbed the Dao light from the Dao tree phantom, while the Guixu swallowed the phantom of the slain enlightened one.
"I will not only achieve my Dao!"
Qin Mu swept his right arm horizontally, his cape fluttering behind him as he strode toward the third treasure hall.
"I will also return to prehistory, to your universes, your eras!"
His form flickered, almost pressing face to face against the third enlightened one's phantom. His brows lifted: "I will meet you in person! I am not one to take a beating without fighting back..."
Boom—
That enlightened one's phantom toppled into the treasure hall, its form exploding.